25 High-Margin Procedures Your Doctor Makes a Killing on Prescribing You
Doctors need to make a living just like everyone else, but there are a number of practices and procedures that are obscenely profitable to perform. So profitable, in fact, that at some point you may need to ask yourself whether a procedure is really necessary for your benefit or that of your doctor’s. Read on to find out about 25 especially high margin procedures to consider closely.
- Medi-spa treatments: Spa treatments are spa treatments, whether you’re in a medical setting or not. The convenience factor and implied credibility of a medi-spa, however, means you’ll pay a lot more.
- Mammogram: This high cost screening procedure has been found to be ineffective and can even spread malignant cells. The Cancer Prevention Coalition recommends clinical and self-exams as an effective low cost alternative.
- Physician dispensed prescriptions: Doctors can make thousands of dollars a year dispensing medication out of their offices, and maintenance medications are especially profitable.
- Chemical skin peels: In 2003, chemical peels created an annual gross of more than $578 million in the United States. This highly elective surgery commands higher pricing than low demand, complex procedures. Chemical peels are almost never covered by insurance.
- Laser surgery: Laser-assisted surgery is a cash cow for both doctors and laser manufacturers.
- Cardiac catheterization: Many medical centers find that they have a high return on investment of an arterial closure device that facilitates cardiac catherization.
- Holistic medicine: Procedures such as acupuncture massage, and other alternative therapies are very lucrative, with a high margin of revenue when compared with the physician’s time spent.
- Gastric bypass: Gastric bypass centers are popping up all over the country because obesity surgery is a high-margin business. Even better, it’s often fully covered by insurance.
- Glasses and contacts: The glasses and contacts that you wear every day are a high-margin, repetitive product that makes a lot of money.
- Radiopharmaceuticals: These therapeutic and diagnostic molecular imaging radioactive pharmaceuticals present a profitable venture for medical practicioners.
- Heart scans: Cardiologists make millions by offering scans to baby boomers concerned with early screening.
- Spine surgery: Sine surgery isn’t generally regarded as a high-volume, high-profit procedure, but it is moving in that direction. The Medical District Surgery Center in Last Vegas reports that doctors who perform spinal surgery are reimbursed from $3,000 to $35,000 per case.
- Heart surgery: Heart surgery is an incredibly profitable procedure. So profitable, in fact, that a hospital in California carried out hundreds of heart operations instead of simpler, cheaper alternatives.
- Hysterectomy: Hysterectomy is a high paid surgery, and it is a relatively fast procedure. Many women undergo hysterectomies to take care of fibroids and other reproductive troubles, when there are alternative procedures that are not as drastic and profitable.
- Osteoporosis screening: This diagnostic procedure is a profit center for doctors, with an aging population that needs to be screened and insurance companies that are willing to reimburse generously.
- Fertility treatments: Many doctors who offer fertility treatments enjoy high profits from their work, some of them even earning a commission for finding egg donors.
- Circumcision: Circumcision create a billion-dollar a year industry. This unnecessary surgery is often recommended because it will prevent a variety of ills, however they have been largely discredited.
- Chemotherapy drugs: Oncologists almost always sell chemotherapy drugs, which is a highly profitable source of revenue. If you feel that you’re not getting the right treatment for your cancer or you’re being treated with unnecessary chemotherapy, get a second opinion.
- 24-hour access: Doctors can charge $3,000 or more every year by offering unlimited 24-hour access to themselves. So if you need help in the middle of the night, you’re going to pay for it.
- Lab work: Some doctors can earn as much as $2.3 million every year just by running a lab in the office. This is especially profitable for practices that have patients that require bloodwork on a constant basis, like diabetics.
- Outpatient procedures: Just about any surgery or procedure that’s performed on an outpatient basis is incredibly profitable because you can be discharged quickly.
- Lasik: Lasik is a popular and profitable surgery, although it’s almost never paid for by insurance. This expensive procedure is responsible for a significant jump in the compensation of most opthamologists.
- Diagnostic imaging: Procedures like CT, ultrasounds, and MRI will boost your doctor’s bottom line. An especially profitable imaging procedure is X-ray, because it’s cheaper to execute.
- Botox injections: These aesthetic injections are profitable because they’re in high demand, and also because you’ll need to make a number of repeat visits for follow-up injections every few months.
- Heart monitoring: Doctors can order devices like the Holter monitor without a huge investment, and reap large financial rewards for offering the service.
Did you enjoy this article?